Nam Aonar ri Taobh na Tuinne
I'm a Swedish South Saami and Scottish Gaelic man based in the part of Saepmie currently occupied by the Swedish State. I guess I could best describe myself as an Indigenous scholar, activist, language rights advocate, translator and teacher.
land acknowledgement
we acknowledge that
the lands on which we gather
are the unceded territories
of those we still other
we acknowledge these lands
with
pipelines
mines
and neocolonial ventures
this autumn we’ll host
a conference on
reconciliation
aye, it’s important to
acknowledge
these lands
Snow
As a teenager, I started to collect South Saami words related to snow, ice and wintry conditions.
Call it an obsession, but I’ve got 570 words so far, describing everything from your visible breath when it’s cold outside - aajngehtasse - to the part of a reindeer’s antler that it uses as a make-shift shovel, in order to get to the lichen it eats - åvte-skaarese.
Margo’s Revenge
Earlier this year, my EFL students had to read Paper Towns by John Green, and then choose a character from the novel, in order to write a poem as a response to the novel.
In order to get started, we decided that the entire class would first write a poem together, focusing on Margo, and this is what they ended up with in the end.
MARGO’S REVENGE
I decided on the catfish,
the lack of scales
coupled with shame,
three in the name of conflict and resolution,
long before
he slithered his way into her bed.
It only seemed fitting
to call down divine wrath
from behind bushes,
to break kashrut
and offer
fire in exchange for broken trust.
An eye for an eyebrow,
reciprocal justice,
vaseline and veet
to start this Exodus of mine.
Our ancestors
walked through scorching deserts
for forty years
to find peace.
A stolen night
spent at SeaWorld
pales in comparison to a lifetime of walking.
And yet,
snakebite or not,
I’d gladly return to Egypt once more,
locusts and all,
to watch the remnants of my paper town
dissolve into the morning sun,
to let his cheating Rhode Island
burn to the ground.
¬
Here’s a book - Bágos Báhkuj - full of essays and translations to and from different Saami languages, that I’ve co-edited.
I’m really looking forward to this film.
Not to be like that
but I guess I’m here for Tumblr’s glow-up
Guess you’ve all heard about nuimos? Anyway, made these traditional South Saami clothes for Donald Duck because of reasons.
Hope you’re all okay, everyone!
I hope the pandemic is treating you well
I am tired and over it.
Apparently I’m growing tatties now
Made a notebook, using bark tanned reindeer leather and sinew.
Laska jah såaja - manne laskab vïeveme jah Per-Stefan Idivuoma lea såajab munnjien dorjeme.
Beading the stress away.
Yes, that is indeed a lemming and a half finished self portrait.
Last year, I translated a new poem by BIPOC/LGBTQ+ and Minority Language poets every day for a full year and anyway, I made a book so that I’d remember what kept me going through 2020, and this is what it looks like.
